I wholeheartedly endorse and support what Mctiki and alohastation said. I also REALLY dig this latest piece. Hope the martini was yummy and when you're sobered up, I'm looking forward to more progress on this piece! _________________OMG! I'm on Instagram!

That's a fine looking set of gouges! Good investment!!! It's completely official now, you've got the carving bug, and the tools and quality carvings to show for it! This new carving is really turning out nice!!! Very detailed and you're nailing it!!!

maybe you're carving some species of acacia that you have that grows local to where you are?
_________________OMG! I'm on Instagram!

Poly- I'm in the smoke so not much found wood going on around here. This piece came from a mixed lot of blocks I bought on Ebay including mahogany, sapele and afromosia but they weren't labelled so I have no idea what this is. I'm guessing maybe afromosia as I've carved the other two and they were harder but can't say for sure.

McTiki- appreciate the input considering you've got more important stuff on your mind, I hope everything works out for you and yours.

here's some more pics...

after making a lot of progress on the front I decided it might be cool to do a roughly mirror image on the other side...

It occurred to me at this point that if I'd thought about this properly I could have had both sides merging at the edge like Alohastation's recent 4 way mug or Shag's 4 faced tiki mug...

AM.....breaking $hit is part of the learning process. Your learning good stuff on a decent piece. Its all good! Keep on it. The next one should be design more sturdy or you will need to take more time on the pucker cuts.

You are doing fine

Mahalo

McTiki

P.S. ...... I watched a paddle handle fly by my face at 70 mph today! It happens to all of us.
_________________Tis a brave man who wears the kilt in January.